Dec. 13, 2013

William Rice, 64, a former police lieutenant, shown in August 2000, pleaded guilty today in Wayne County Circuit Court to two counts of perjury and one count of continuing criminal enterprise, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. / Richard Lee/Detroit Free Press

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Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

The former head of the Detroit Police Department’s homicide unit could spend up to 20 years in prison for running a criminal enterprise involving mortgage fraud and lying on the witness stand.

William Rice, 64, a former police lieutenant, pleaded guilty today in Wayne County Circuit Court to two counts of perjury and one count of continuing criminal enterprise, and his co-defendant and longtime girlfriend Cheryl Sanford pleaded guilty to one count of continuing criminal enterprise and one count of false pretenses between $1,000 and $12,000, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.

As part of their pleas, 13 other charges, including those related to drug dealing, were dismissed, although they owe restitution of more than $100,000. Rice is to be sentenced on Jan. 29 to 2-20 years in prison and Sanford to five years of probation, with the first year in jail, the prosecutor’s office said.

According to an earlier Free Press report, Rice lied on the stand in October 2009 when he was a defense witness in a case involving Sanford’s nephew, Davontae Sanford, who was sentenced to 37-90 years in the killings of four people in Detroit in 2007. Davontae was 14 and charged as an adult at the time.